


Car crash

by AniZH



Category: Victorious
Genre: Car Accident, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 08:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12723372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniZH/pseuds/AniZH
Summary: Beck and his parents are in a car crash. Beck gets out of it almost unscratched while his parents aren’t as lucky. He feels like drowning; Jade’s the one keeping him up. (no deaths)





	Car crash

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to this very long one shot!  
> This one is dedicated to two great users from fanfiction, who gabe me the idea for this.  
> As the title says, this one shot resolves around a big car accident. So, be warned if it could trigger you.  
> Yeah. Anything else to say? I don’t think so. Please, let me know what you think about this story and enjoy the read!

Beck spent the long weekend with his parents in Canada, visiting family. Some of his aunts, uncles and counsins don’t live in Canada anymore, have also moved away like Beck and his parents. But his grandparents are still living there, not too far apart from each other, and they visit them fairly often.  
It’s Sunday evening now and Jade’s kind of waiting for Beck to text or call her. He always does when he’s back home after a few days. They aren’t used to not seeing each other for longer than a day, to be honest.  
They of course also have texted and talked on the phone while he was away, but usually, he makes sure to let Jade know that everything’s alright and that they will see each other the next morning in school. If they are both in the mood, he sometimes still comes over or, more often, she still drives to his place – or makes him pick her up, as she doesn’t have a car of her own, just her mother’s to use. Her mother can also get to work without the car, but prefers having it herself.  
She’s sitting on her big comfy chair, on her laptop, reading on TheSlap, when her phone finally rings and shows Beck calling.  
She picks up. “Finally home again?”  
It’s silent on the other end for too long. For a few heartbeats, while Beck usually says something right away.  
She already sits up straight, putting her laptop away, before she hears his voice, sounding almost broken: “Jade. You’ve got to come.”  
“Where to?” she asks, not questioning it for a second. She does have to get to him. The way he sounds... She needs to be with him.  
She’s up her feet and gathers her money and keys and only stops for a second when Beck says the name of a hospital not too far from where he lives.  
Her heart stops, just like her movement, then it all starts even quicker. “I’ll be there as fast as I can,” she promises before she hangs up and is out the door.  
She only tells her mother that Beck called her from the hospital and that she needs to drive there, while she already takes her car keys. Her mother lets her leave without complaint.  
She tries to take deep breaths while she drives. Nothing can have happened. Beck must be okay. He called her after all. He can’t be badly injured or worse.  
But the tone of his voice... something terrible did happen.

She asks for him when she walks inside the hospital and gets send to a waiting area. And there alone, on one of the chairs, staring against the wall, pale and eyes empty, is Beck.  
He doesn’t notice her coming inside. He seems totally out of it, though his eyes are wide open.  
“Beck,” she carefully says his name.  
He startles, looks at her and god, just the look in his eyes could break her. So hopeless and desperate.  
He leaps up as he realizes it’s her and not even a second later, they lie in each other’s arms and hug closely.  
She’s absolutely relieved to have him in her arms. Yes, when he turned to her, she was sure to see that his face was somewhat scratched up, but nothing serious. And here he is, in her arms, alive and not injured enough at least to be in one of those hospital beds.  
Though he’s clearly shaken.  
For minutes, they hug each other, Beck needing this. But even when they break apart, they don’t really. She just leans far enough back to look him into his eyes. His arms are still wrapped around her, while she gently runs one of her hands through his hair and holds his scratched-up face with the other.  
“What happened?”  
He takes a shaky breath. “We drove home from the airport. And then... another car crashed into ours. I... My parents... They both undergo emergency surgery right now.”  
Emergency surgery. Of course, his eyes seem so empty. He’s scared like hell. Could this actually mean that one of his parents or even both could die any second?  
She promptly pulls him back closely into her arms.

 

There’s first a nurse, coming inside, telling them that Beck’s mother is alive and alright. She will have to stay in intensive care as of now but Beck shouldn’t worry too much. He will get to see her soon.  
Before he gets to go to her, another nurse comes inside and says that his father’s alive just the same and that they’re putting him into the same unit as his mother now and he can already come with him.  
Beck has hold onto Jade, when the nurses talked to him, and now also takes her by her hand to pull her with him to his parents.  
The nurse stops though and asks Jade: “Who are you?”  
“She’s my girlfriend,” Beck answers before Jade can.  
“She can’t come in with you, sorry,” the nurse says. “Only immediate family.”  
Jade sees how Beck tenses up even more. And promptly he claims: “We’re engaged.”  
Which they aren’t and Jade also doesn’t appreciate this sort of lie. But she gets it. Beck doesn’t feel able to go in there alone, without her.  
But the nurse shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”  
Jade sees that Beck’s about to start arguing, though this isn’t the time. That’s why she also doesn’t start with it. Yes, the nurse could make an exception, as he must see how broken Beck feels. How can you ask a 17-year-old to have to go alone into the room where both his parents lie, almost dead? But he has to get through it now.  
So, before he starts to argue, she lets go of his hand and instead takes his face in both her hands, looking him directly into the eye, saying intently: “It’s okay, Beck. Go and see your parents. I’ll be waiting for you right here.”  
Beck looks at her for a moment and finally leans in for a short kiss, their first kiss after the accident, sealing that promise of Jade to stay right where she is.  
Then he leaves with the nurse, Jade staying back alone. She draws in a shaky breath, as soon as Beck leaves her sight, as soon as he also can’t see her anymore, even if he turns around, and lets herself fall on the chair where he sat upon her arrival.  
She can’t believe this is happening. It can’t be. Beck can’t suffer like this. Beck’s this child out of the best circumstances, loved and adored by both his parents, who are still happily married after twenty years. His parents can’t be taken away from him, this early in his life. He doesn’t deserve anything bad happening to him. He deserves his picture perfect life.  
He will keep it. His parents won’t die. They can’t. And until they’re well, she will be with him, will be strong for him, like he’s always strong for her.

She texts her mother while she waits for Beck to come back, informing her that Beck’s okay, but his parents aren’t, and that she will stay with Beck for now. Her mother texts back to call her if she needs her help in any form.  
When Beck comes back, he directly falls into Jade’s arms again, holding onto her as if she’s his lifeline.  
She holds him for a long time, before she gently tells him, they should get home.  
She isn’t sure if he’ll even get into the car with her. After all, he has sat in that car as well, he has been in that crash. Maybe, he isn’t able to sit back into a car. But as of now, he doesn’t care. Jade isn’t even sure if he notices that he’s back in a car.  
Jade keeps a hand with him that he holds tightly, as she drives them to his RV.  
His hands are shaking as he tries to unlock the RV, so she takes the key out of his hand and unlocks it herself. She also helps to undress him for bed, because he doesn’t seem able to function anymore and he would just lie down on the bed dressed as he is which Jade doesn’t like.  
Under his clothes, she finds more wounds and bruises than only the scratches on his face. Nothing bad but it makes Jade swallow hard because it shows her that it’s only luck that he’s sitting in front of her on his bed now, instead of lying in the hospital next to his parents.  
She needs to find out if he got checked through too, if his insides are fine, what the doctors said about his condition. But she knows the time isn’t right to ask any of that. They must have checked on him and can’t have found anything, otherwise they wouldn’t have let him go.  
When they lie in bed together, in the darkness in the RV, they hold each other close again. And it’s only there, where nobody else can see him, where it’s just Jade, that he starts to cry.

o

Jade comes to school, only shortly before the bell. Tori, Cat, Robbie and Andre all stand at Andre’s locker and talk this morning. Tori has already wondered where Jade and Beck might be. Now, Jade’s there and Beck isn’t.  
The others have noticed her coming inside too and they all exchange a look, before they walk over to question her about Beck’s absence. Jade and Beck pretty much always know where the other one is, weirdly.  
They greet her quickly, before Tori’s the one to ask: “Where’s Beck?”  
Jade seems a little paler than usual, up close. And her makeup doesn’t quite cover the dark circles under her eyes.  
“His parents are in the hospital,” she answers.  
No. They can’t be, can they?  
“What?” Andre asks a little stunned.  
They were in Canada together, weren’t they? Have they been in an accident there?  
Jade answers slowly: “All of them were in a car crash yesterday, when they came back from the airport.”  
“All of them?” Cat asks softly. Exactly what made Tori’s inside freeze.  
“Beck’s okay,” Jade assures them. “His parents aren’t.”  
Tori knows it’s still horrible, but she might feel a slight relief. At least, Beck himself is fine.  
“But they are...?” Robbie starts but can’t say another word.  
“Alive?” Jade says in an almost casual tone, as if it wasn’t horrifying that this question even needed to be asked. “Yes. As of now.”

 

He’s lost. He’s somewhere deep under water and isn’t able to get up.  
There’s a pressure on his ears that make his head hurt. And there are sounds. Despite being under water, he can hear metal crash into metal. And screams. Horrible screams. He can also smell. The smell is metallic too.  
He can feel his body getting thrown around. He can feel some sort of pressure on his chest.  
It’s all fizzy though. Memories without him really remembering.  
He’s somehow drifting in and out of his body. Suddenly, he can feel himself lying on his bed again. Then, it’s like he’s watching himself. Like he’s standing somewhere in the RV, watching him lying on his bed with wide eyes.  
At one point, he gets up and runs to the bathroom just in time to throw up.  
As he gets back to his bed, sits down on it, he steals a glance to the watch. It’s already time for lunch. God, how can it be that so much time has already passed?  
He feels a surge of guilt that makes him loose his breath. He should’ve long been up and should’ve driven to the hospital. He should’ve seen his parents, looked after them, should’ve taken care of them. What’s he still doing here?  
But what if he arrives at the hospital and the doctors tell him his parents passed away this morning? What if they tell him that they asked for him and he wasn’t there in their last moment? What if he lost them and didn’t even went to see them one last time?  
He starts to hyperventilate and only calms down when his eyes fall onto the glass, sitting on top of his headboard. A glass full of water. A glass that Jade put there. Jade.  
His breathing slows down as everything inside of him fills up with the thought of Jade.  
He feels her holding him again, all throughout night. He barely slept that night and every time he startled awake, Jade held him, gently stroking his hair. She gave him water to drink every now and then, exactly out of that glass.  
He feels her hand in his hair now. For a while, it was gone this morning. Then, it was back and there was her voice: “I’m gonna tell the teachers that you won’t be in school. You should try to rest a little bit longer and then go and visit your parents.”  
And she kissed his forehead, made him drink some more, then filled the glass back up again and left.  
He hasn’t been able to fall back asleep. Has lied there, in his bed, alone.  
Now, he lies down again and hides his head under his pillow.  
Jade will hate him. She will hate him because he hasn’t listened and hasn’t gotten up and visited his parents. He will loose her, just like he will loose his parents. He will be all alone in this world.  
He can’t have her come back and see him here like this. He can’t have her hate him. But he also can’t get up. How could he get to the hospital now, with feeling so guilty at not having gone there right away?  
And he longs for Jade to come back, even though he’s sure she must hate seeing him here. He needs her to be with him. He needs her to hold him.  
It has been time for lunch when he put the pillow over his head. He only lifts it up again when he hears the door open. Jade’s back from school.  
Beck looks at her with wide eyes, panic spreading inside of him. But she doesn’t seem surprised or angry to find him here.  
“Beck?” she addresses him and manages to make him focus on her eyes. Her clear eyes that seem to bring him back into his own body. That doesn’t take the pain away but some of the dizzyness.  
“Come on, get up,” she says. “We have to get to the hospital for you to see your parents.”  
To see his parents. But what if... “I don’t feel well,” he claims. He doesn’t. He almost feels like throwing up again, though there’s nothing he can throw up.  
“I know,” she says and takes him by his arm, pulling him up from the bed. “Do you have a headache?”  
One of the many things he feels in this stranger’s body, he’s suddenly inside of again. He nods, which makes it worse.  
“Okay. We’ll take care of that. Come on. Get ready.”  
He should get ready. Listening to Jade’s voice makes him know that he should. He stumbles to the bathroom where he starts with brushing his teeth.  
He leaves the door open and he doesn’t even really see himself in the mirror, but he does hear Jade’s voice, as if it was the only real thing left in this world: “Have you gotten a call or anything?”  
He hasn’t. Has he? “Don’t know.”  
“I’ll take a look,” she says.  
He doesn’t protest. He wouldn’t know what for. He doesn’t even know why Jade wants to check his phone. Until he does. Shit.  
“Anything?” he asks, spitting out the toothpaste, almost choking on that and on himself.  
The hospital obviously would’ve called him if something happened to his parents. He remembers as if a far away memory that Jade gave them his number when they asked for it. God, they can’t have called him. Nothing can have happened to his parents. He can’t be alone.  
“No,” Jade answers quickly and weirdly calming him down with that word alone.  
And then, she’s in the bathroom with him. She helps him brush his hair and wash himself a little. She also picks out clothes for him. Then, they are off.  
Jade asks him if they can take his car. He doesn’t care. He feels numb. Just like he feels numb about getting into a car at all. It’s almost as if someone has put a dampener over the world, over him. Jade is the only thing he notices. Jade is the only thing that isn’t blurry. That isn’t muffled.  
She drives them to the hospital and before they get to the intensive care unit, they get caught up by a doctor who takes them to two police officers. They say they would’ve visited him next. They want to talk about the accident. They allow Jade to stay with him as they question him about it. The other driver’s in the hospital as well. He was drunk and the police assumes, he was fully at fault. That’s also what the witnesses said. They still want to question Beck’s parents when they are awake and now try to get some details out of Beck, but he doesn’t remember anything, except those sounds and those smells and that feeling. Nothing that helps the police.  
He dully wonders if he should be angry with that other driver. He isn’t. He doesn’t care about him. Though he also doesn’t care if that guy survives or not.  
The doctors sit down with them next. They tell Beck about his parents’ condition. He barely understands anything, but at least, Jade’s again allowed to stay with him. Jade’s also the one to ask about his own condition and to mention his headache. He gets checked on again. Some doctor already checked on him the night before. Only after that, he got the chance to call Jade. His parents were in surgery all through that.  
He gets some medicine now. He doesn’t know what for. But he sees Jade nodding her head, as the doctor tells him to take it, so he does.  
The doctor also says once again, as the other one did the night before, that it’s a miracle that he’s so well after what happened to his parents, the other driver and their cars. It was a frontal crash, so it’s natural that his parents got the worst of it. Still, they say, it’s a miracle that he has barely bruises and nothing serious, while his parents are in intensive care.  
It doesn’t cheer him up, quite the opposite. How much he would like to lie with his parents now, not noticing what’s going on, not realizing how serious the situation is.  
Jade squeezes his hand in hers and by her look, he has the feeling she knows about his thoughts and doesn’t like them.  
Then, he finally goes back into the room, where both his parents are in. Both not awake. Again without Jade, because noone allows her inside there.  
When he leaves the unit again, Jade waits for him, a coffee and a bagel in her hands. She holds out both for him and the smell of coffee, after the smell of disinfectant in the intensive care unit calms him down.  
He takes the coffee and takes a sip. The first thing he gets into his body since the accident, except for the water Jade made him drink throughout the night. The coffee tastes amazing somehow.  
She holds out the bagel for him, almost looking impatient.  
“I don’t wanna eat anything,” he says. He doesn’t feel like it.  
“You will,” Jade says though. “No backtalk. I spent money on this and you will eat it.”  
He hesitates for one more second, then he takes the bagel. Though he feels like it will make him sick, he takes a bite and that first bite suddenly makes him incredibly hungry and he eats all of it, while they are still on the way to the car.

 

At home, Beck finds himself sitting on the couch with Jade, leaning against her, Jade gently stroking his hair.  
“Are you listening?”  
He has heard her voice in the distance, but hasn’t heard what she has said, has enjoyed her hand and her warm body next to his.  
“Mhm,” he only makes and Jade repeats what she must’ve said before: “Have you called your grandparents? Do they know that something’s going on?”  
He shakes his head. He at least hasn’t informed them.  
“Give me your phone,” she commands, pushing him slightly away from him.  
He has put his phone into his own pocket before they drove to the hospital. More out of habit than because he felt like he needed his phone with him.  
Now, he pulls it out and gives it to Jade.  
She’s about to stand up with it in her hand, but he promptly grabs her by her arm. “No.”  
“Someone has to tell them,” she says and he understands that she wants to call his grandparents to inform them. Like how she called Cat’s family when her parents moved away and she didn’t know where to stay.  
As awkward as it is to call the family of someone you are close to, if you aren’t close to that family... She’s taking care of things. Like she always does.  
But as it’s awkward, she doesn’t feel like doing it in front of Beck. She wants to leave the RV to call them in peace.  
“Stay with me,” he pleads quietly. He can’t have her leave again. He just started to feel comfortable here in her arms. After seeing his parents alive earlier. Not awake, but still alive. After hearing the doctors say that they are doing better. After getting some coffee and a bagel inside of him.  
Jade looks at him for a moment, then she rolls her eyes and sits back on the couch like she sat before, offering him to lean against her again. He does, quickly, before she can change her mind.  
And from here, he can listen perfectly to Jade calling his grandparents. He hears that it’s his father’s mother picking up; Jade’s calling their home number, theirs as she’s on better terms with his father’s parents than his mother’s.  
He can’t hear his grandmother’s responses but her tone of voice and Jade herself.  
“This isn’t Beck, it’s Jade, his girlfriend.” They do have his number saved in their phone and must’ve therefore expected him.  
Confusion on the other end and Jade again: “He and his parents have been in a car crash.”  
He’s sure he hears his grandmother making a shocked noise he never want to hear anyone make.  
“He’s okay, but his parents aren’t. They’re in the hospital and the doctors are concerned.” She explains about their condition, better than Beck would’ve been able to.  
Then, Beck hears his ganrdmother call for his grandfather before saying something to Jade.  
He feels her eyes on him, as she answers: “He’s finally getting some rest, sorry.” Which means his grandmother asked to talk to him. He’s glad Jade denied her that – without saying he doesn’t feel emotionally ready for it, instead claiming he’s sleeping.  
“Could you also call...?” That’s the first moment, Jade sounds unsure during the phone call. As if she doesn’t know what to say to Beck’s other grandparents in front of these ones. Should she call them their in-laws? Should she call them Beck’s mother’s parents? Or call his mother by her first name though she doesn’t otherwise?  
His grandmother understands and Jade doesn’t have to finish the question.  
Jade confirms one more time, then: “Yeah, Beck will call if there’s anything new. Bye.”  
“Thank you,” he whispers when she hangs up. It comes easily over his lips, even in a situation like this. Because he knows that it’s not like Jade liked this task, liked to be the one delivering these news to his grandparents.  
“Don’t worry about it.”

She isn’t only organizing having his grandparents know. She also texts her mother in between and organizes for her to get her car back, which he only finds out when her mother comes by.  
He noticed before that she has her phone in her hand every now and then, but he didn’t care. As long as she also held him... Next to being on the phone she turned on the TV, which he didn’t care for as well, but which is fine for her to do. As long as she’s there for him.  
Now, there’s a knock on the RV’s door and Jade promptly pushes Beck off of her again and stands up.  
Beck doesn’t know what’s going on and wants to keep her from going to the door, as if by opening it, she could let all of the badness of the world inside, as if his life would be alright as long it would be just him and Jade in the RV.  
But before Beck can grab Jade once more, she explains: “It’s my mom. She’s getting her car back.”  
And she passes by Beck and goes to open the door.  
It really is Jade’s mother, who comes inside two steps, sharing greetings with her daughter. Then, she also turns to Beck: “Hi, Beck. Are you alright?”  
He doesn’t know how to answer that, so he doesn’t answer at all.  
Jade’s mother doesn’t urge him to say anything, instead she continues after a moment: “I’m sorry about your parents. I hope they’ll be well.”  
And then, she’s turning back to Jade. “Here, I brought this. Tell me if you need anything else.”  
She gives two covered plates that smell like nice food.  
“I will,” Jade says, putting the plates on the couch table, taking the car key and giving it back to her mother. “Here’s the key.”  
“You can also keep the car,” Jade’s mother says but Jade shakes her head: “I’ll use Beck’s when necessary.”  
With that, everything’s agreed upon. Jade’s mother leaves again and Jade gets back to the couch, uncovers the plates and makes Beck eat more than half of what’s on them.

o

Tori and the others can’t wait to ask Jade about Beck and his parents again. She didn’t say too much to them anymore yesterday. They asked her for lunch if she knows any more, but she rolled her eyes and told them that she was in her classes and obviously didn’t find out more there. Though Beck also could’ve texted her.  
Neither dared afterwards to text either of them, also felt a little helpless about the situation. Was there anything they could do for Beck? They want to ask that today, talk about that, this morning at Tori’s locker.  
But Jade isn’t alone like yesterday when she walks into school. Instead, Beck is with her, like he usually is.  
He looks much more worn out than Jade did yesterday. He also has a few small scratches on the right side of his face. Tori can’t imagine those little scratches came from such a big car crash that almost killed his parents.  
That thought gives her the creeps.  
Quickly, Tori and the others walk up to the quiet couple that don’t seperate to each find their lockers, but instead go to Jade’s together, hand in hand.  
“Beck! How’re your parents?” Andre asks when they are close enough.  
Beck only fleetingly glances at them but doesn’t answer. Jade doesn’t even glance to them. She frees her hand from Beck’s to open her locker, while she answers though, almost casually: “His mother was much better yesterday evening, according to the doctors.”  
The bell rings but none of them starts to go to their class. Instead, Tori gently asks: “Can we do anything?”  
“You can’t,” Beck says, flatly, not even considering.  
Jade has gotten two books out of her locker by now and closes is back up. She takes Beck’s hand in hers again and promptly draws him with her: “Come on. Let’s get to class.”  
Tori doesn’t know if he needs anything out of his locker, but he doesn’t protest in any case and let’s Jade lead him to his class. It’s only when Tori sits in her own class that she realizes that Jade isn’t in the same as Beck for today’s first class.  
Cat tells her during next break that Jade brought Beck to that class, which Cat shares with him, and also came to pick him up after, while he just sat there the whole time, beside himself.  
The friends go up to the couple during some of the breaks, try to talk to them a little. Not about what happened, because apparently, Beck doesn’t want to talk about it. Beck doesn’t say anything anymore and Jade comments like usual. It’s the same for lunch, but they do come to sit with them.  
Beck doesn’t seem too interested in eating anything though, keeps his arm around Jade and stares into the distance. Until Jade quietly tells him, just caught by Tori under Robbie and Andre chuckling about something Cat said: “Eat.” Beck takes a deep breath, his eyes focusing again and going down to his food. He keeps his arm around Jade, but he also starts eating.

 

Jade has never seen Beck like this and it scares her. But they will get through it. They will get through everything.  
She knows his parents will get even better and with them getting better, Beck will slowly go back to his normal self too. Though Jade has a feeling that there’s still a lot to come with Beck. He won’t stay this quiet and he won’t just go back to his calm self after this quietness. But she will handle it.  
Now, she drives both of them, in Beck’s car, from school to the hospital.  
It’s by chance that his grandmothers see them there. They must have just gotten out of the hospital themselves, must have gotten to the car they rented at the airport, to go somewhere, maybe in search for Beck. Probably, out here, they also wanted to try calling Beck.  
Instead, they see Beck and Jade getting out of Beck’s car on the big parking lot of the hospital. And they promptly approach them, noticed by Beck and Jade only, when his grandma, his father’s mother, says: “Oh, Beck!”  
She and his mams each hug him, happy and relieved, while his mams says: “We already wondered why neither of your parents texted when you were back home. But we never would’ve thought something like this happened. They sometimes forgot to tell that you three arrived back home safely. If we would’ve known, we would’ve already come the night of the accident and you wouldn’t have had to be alone.”  
Jade notices that Beck barely hugs back. It’s too much for him. All of his mams’ words, her blabbering on in a situation like this. And then both hugging him as if their own lives depended on him, as if the only thing keeping them going right now is him.  
Instead of feeling relief himself to see loved ones after what happened, he even seems a little shocked that they are here at all. Well, his grandma never said on the phone with Jade that she would be coming. Probably, they decided that after talking to each other, and they didn’t feel the need to inform Beck. Jade would’ve known if anyone would’ve tried talking to Beck. If only because she checked his phone every now and then in school today, just to make sure the hospital didn’t call and he didn’t answer.  
“We’re so glad to see you’re okay,” his grandma says. Well, he certainly isn’t looking okay, but Jade gets what she means with that.  
“Where were you?” she asks, after he still doesn’t say anything. Both of them have let go of him by now.  
“At school,” he answers.  
His grandmothers exchange a look with raised eyebrows. “While your parents are in the hospital?”  
Beck’s look immediately gets darker. “Fuck off.”  
Okay, whoa. Jade knows Beck has never used those words in front of his grandparents. She did in front of hers a million times but Beck isn’t a person to say these sort of things. Which doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking them from time to time. But his usual demeanor keeps him from saying it out loud most of the time, except if Jade provokes him enough or his parents are explaining to him that he can’t be together with Jade.  
But this is what she has expected. His irritation about things coming to the surface so easily in his current state. That’s exactly the kind of person he is.  
His grandmothers are shocked. Jade guesses noone has ever talked to them like this.  
“Excuse me?” mams says, in a real threatening tone.  
Jade knows Beck will say even worse, but none of them need to fight now. That’s why she quickly speaks up, not explaining away the f-word, Beck dropped, but instead explaining why Beck went to school, instead of being at the hospital during the morning: “He wasn’t allowed too much in the room anyway,” – which is true; as his parents are still in intensive care, he isn’t actually allowed at their sides for the whole day and is supposed to just be in the room for a few hours a day at best – “so I decided that he should go to school, instead of being home alone with everything.”  
It’s easy to take the blame, so his grandmothers will think of her as a dominating bitch (which they do anyway), instead of thinking of Beck as horrible for not being with his parents. Also, it was really her idea to have him at school. Because she could at least watch over him there, could make sure he ate and drank enough.  
His grandmothers look at her, clearly unhappy to see her at all in these difficult times. Even though it was her who called them. It was her who made sure they knew of this at all. But... She doesn’t care. She doesn’t need them to be thankful to her or anything. She doesn’t even need them to like her. This is about Beck and Beck alone.  
His mams finally says: “Well, we’re here now.” So he won’t be alone at home anymore and nobody needs her. She turns back to Beck, lying her hand on his back: “Come on, let’s go see your parents. Your mother got out of intensive care, just as we arrived earlier.”  
Those are amazing news, but Beck instead looks a little distressed when his grandmothers want to pull him with them. She knows what the problem is and promptly promises: “I’ll wait for you here.”  
Because for some reason, he needs specifically her right now.  
He catches her eye and sees that she means it. And that’s enough for him to be able to go with his grandmothers.  
Of course, his grandma still needs to say though: “Oh, there’s no reason for you to wait. We can take him home afterwards.”  
Now, Beck’s actually glaring at his grandma. But he can’t start insulting her, so Jade quickly draws his attention to her again, saying intently: “I’ll wait.” No matter what his grandmothers might say.  
Beck looks to her again and nods, before he’s the one pulling his grandmothers with him now, to the hospital.

 

He still feels like he isn’t himself, like he isn’t in his own body. It irritates him, this wrong feeling inside of him.  
He loves his grandparents, he really does, but his grandmothers weirdly don’t calm him down. Their hugs don’t feel as comforting as they should and all those words they speak, also while they’re visiting his mother and then his father, annoy him more than anything else. The words sound so empty to him.  
His mother isn’t in intensive care anymore, but she’s asleep when they’re visiting. His grandmothers say she also was asleep when they were already in the room earlier, but that the doctors said that she did wake up by now, the previous night.  
His grandmothers want to eat in the cafetaria of the hospital after their visits but Beck tells them he isn’t hungry. He isn’t. He feels sick, like he has almost constantly felt since the accident. His grandmothers don’t make it better at all. They keep talking about how his parents will be well again soon and he doesn’t want to hear it. Nobody knows what will happen.  
Jade hasn’t said that once. She has just kept talking about it if she could help it and he likes that so much better. It doesn’t make him as sick. Somehow, Jade just knows what he needs, just holds him tight and takes care of him. His grandmothers seem to have no idea what he needs.  
He’s glad to see Jade standing next to his car, leaning against it. She has her phone in her hand and plays something. Beck knows he has been in there for hours this time. It’s already evening. He wonders if Jade stood here the whole time, so he would easily see her, coming out, or if she drove somewhere in between. He’s somehow sure the first is true.  
He hugs her, when he arrives with her, her already having seen him and his grandmothers coming back and putting her phone away. She hugs him back, tightly, like he needs it right now.  
She’s the one keeping him sane at the moment.  
He has felt numb since the accident but slowly,the numbness turns into irritation. Jade is the only other feeling he has next to that, he realizes. She doesn’t give him another feeling, she is another feeling.  
“Is this your car?”  
That’s his grandma, adressing him. Why does she ask? Why does she care?  
Jade answers: “It’s his, yeah.”  
He takes his hand in hers.  
His grandma suggests: “Why doesn’t one of us take this and drop you off at home?” Now, she’s adressing Jade.  
And how can they not understand? In an usual harsh tone of voice, he says: “Jade will drive me home and she will stay with me.”  
He suddenly thinks he also can’t get into the car with anybody else. As if Jade could magically protect him from another car crash while noone else could.  
He feels Jade squeeze his hand and he realizes he shouldn’t be harsh to his grandmothers, that he shouldn’t talk to them in this tone of voice. It’s not their fault that they don’t understand him as well as Jade does.  
He lets got of her hand, asking her: “Can you give them the key for the house?” With his car key, she also has all his other keys. Jade nods and seperates it from the others, while Beck tells his grandmothers: “You can stay there.”  
“Won’t you be there with us?” his grams asks as his grandma takes the key from Jade.  
“We’ll be in the RV,” he answers and he doesn’t want to hear anything more from his grandmothers. He doesn’t want them to protest. So, he quickly walks around the car. That’s the signal for Jade to unlock it and he sits down on the passanger’s seat before another word is said.  
Jade opens the door on the driver’s side, telling his grandmothers: “We’ll see you at the house.”

They do see each other at the house for another short moment. Jade makes sure to drive there slow enough that his grandmothers arrive only shortly after them.  
They offer them to come into the house with them to eat something, but Beck quickly says: “No, I’m not hungry.”  
And he vanishes inside the RV. He isn’t hungry but he also doesn’t want to spend more time with his grandmothers. He somehow can’t stand them right now. He wants to be alone with Jade, wants to cuddle up to her and try to sleep again. Last night, he actually got some sleep that made him feel somewhat better – though he woke up to the horror of his parents still being in the hospital, badly injured.  
Jade follows him into the RV and luckily locks the door behind her, so she also doesn’t invite his grandmothers in. Well, because she knows what he needs.  
He lies down on the couch. Jade sits down next to him and lies down a hand on his chest.  
“I’m hungry, you know,” she gently says.  
Well, and she can’t really go into the house on her own with his grandmothers there, to get herself something to eat. She did make him go into the house this morning for both of them to eat breakfast there. She made it with the supplies in the house.  
But yes, it would be weird now, to go into the house alone. It would be fine if noone would be inside of it.  
He hasn’t thought about the possibility of her being hungry. He’s sorry, but... “Don’t make me spend more time with them,” he pleads quietly. Not right now. He doesn’t want to hear anybody else’s voice than Jade’s for the rest of the day. Or his parents’ but that can’t be made true.  
She sighs silently, rubbing her hand over his chest, before she decides: “I’ll order pizza.”  
She does so, ordering a pizza for both of them and telling him to eat. Weirdly enough, he gets hungry again after the first bite, while she eats surprisingly little.

o

The next day in school, Tori doesn’t understand at all what’s going on with Beck. She thinks he should be happy that his mother is out of intensive care and that his father also is a little better, according to Jade. He also is a little bit more talkative again than yesterday. But most of what he says is just... mean. He shows himself annoyed, when he talks, is irritated easily and short-temepered.  
Tori’s very weirded out by it, because it doesn’t make sense. Her friends also don’t seem to understand it. Jade’s the only one who doesn’t seem fazed by it in the slightest.  
They’re sitting at lunch together again and Tori has noticed that Beck has started eating but has quickly stopped again.  
Jade tells him quietly, after a moment: “Keep eating.”  
Beck’s answer comes harsh and loud enough for Robbie, Andre and Cat to look to them too: “Don’t tell me what to do.”  
Okay, this could turn into a fight. Beck talking to Jade in this tone? She’s allowed to use that tone, but Tori’s sure she won’t allow it to anyone else.  
She does glare at Beck with him glaring back. But very clearly and slowly, she commands: “Keep. Eating.”  
For another moment, they glare at each other, then Beck spits out: “Fine.” He picks up his fork again and does as he’s told. Jade also turns back to her own food as if nothing happened.  
Tori shares a glance with Andre. Well... Fascinating that he’s listening to her. But also that Jade hasn’t cowered at all under his glare while everyone else has throughout the whole day – even the teachers who tried to talk to him. Jade doesn’t care. Just like Beck never cares about her glaring at him. They easily take it from the other one.

 

Jade has taken Beck inside the house in the morning for breakfast. As thought, his grandmothers made some food and were happy and relieved to see Beck again; they of course weren’t about Jade but didn’t make a comment this time around.  
Beck needed something to eat. But Jade also thinks he should keep close to his grandmothers. This morning, after some sleep, he also was able to stand them again for some time. And Jade knows, even if he’s unnerved by them... They’re his grandparents and he loves them and they do give him some comfort. Not enough, but a little and that’s also worth something. Furthermore, she was with him and would’ve been able to keep him from insulting his grandmothers if the need would’ve arised.  
But they didn’t say anything about Beck going to school or alike, just agreed to meet him afterwards at the hospital.  
They’re waiting in front of the hospital now but recognize Beck’s car right away and already walk up to it while Jade still parks it.  
They barely greet them and instead directly tell them that Beck’s father is now out of intensive care as well and that they managed to get them into a room together, him and his wife. And his mother’s very much awake and wants to see Beck really badly.  
Jade has gotten out of the car with Beck and prepares to wait again at it. She sees that Beck feels unsure, but he’ll have to get through it. It’s as if he’s afraid that his mother will react badly to him, as if after the accident, all her feelings to him could’ve changed, as if she would give him the fault for it – or as if she would give him the fault for being so well while she and her husband have to suffer so much.  
Obviously, both his parents will be glad that he was barely hurt during the accident. Somewhere inside of him, he must know that too. And Jade knows he wants to see both his parents back awake so badly, wants to be able to hug them and to talk to them.  
But he still feels unsure. And suddenly, he turns to Jade again. “Come inside with me.”  
She knows what he means with that. He doesn’t just want her to come inside the hospital with him, but inside the room. She couldn’t get into the intensive care unit, but she will be able to go inside the room, in which his parents are now.  
She glances to his grandmothers who aren’t impressed by his request.  
She doesn’t want to talk about this in front of them, but she has to answers him, quietly: “They don’t want to see me.”  
She would go to the end of the world with and for him if that’s what he needs. But this is also about his parents and if his mother’s truly awake and waiting for him... She certainly doesn’t want to see Jade. She hates her.  
But Beck looks at her in that certain way and how can she not come with him? What does she care what his parents want? If he wants her there, she has to be there. He would do anything for her and she would do anything for him.  
“Okay,” she therefore agrees without him needing to say another word.  
He gently kisses her before he takes her hand.

His mother’s face shows total relief as Beck walks inside. “Oh, my baby boy,” she says as she and Beck hug as closely as possible with her sitting in her hospital bed. “I’m so glad to see nothing happened to you.”  
Jade keeps in the background and close to the door while Beck’s grandmothers also move further into the room, checking up on both their children. And though Jade keeps away, she still hears Beck’s voice, incredibly broken: “Mom.”  
She gets that his mother starts to cry.  
They hug for a long time and then his mother asks him if he’s alright. It’s the first time that Beck doesn’t seem to hate the question but answers that he’s only happy about her and his father being okay.  
His mother also asks if he remembers anything from the accident, which he doesn’t, and if he has eaten well, which he has. She also doesn’t remember anything from the accident and Beck tells what he remembers from his talk with the police. She promises to come home soon and he tells her that it’s fine and that she should just concentrate on getting better.  
Beck’s grandmothers also say something every now and then. Jade thinks they should just let the two of them talk on their own for a while, mother and son, after the mother almost lost her life. But Beck stays calm, so she doesn’t meddle. Every now and then he even turns around to her and smiles lightly, obviously happy to have his mother to talk to, but also happy at the same time to see her there as if she’s the proof that his mother alive and quite well isn’t just some dream. She smiles back every time.  
While they are in the room, Jade having sat down on a chair against the wall, as far away as possible from the beds, Beck’s father finally wakes up too.  
Beck also hugs him for a long time, but even as Jade sees Beck between his parents, talking with a gentle smile, she knows not everything’s okay for him. Because this still happens, he feels still scared and suddenly, he lives in the reality that he could loose his parents at any time, which he wasn’t aware of before. Not to mention that the doctors still not know if all of his parents’ wounds will heal up completely or what will be left afterwards. And he hasn’t even started to work through all his fear from the last few days, through that panic. The numbness is still wearing off and he still will need quite a few more days to find back into his own skin.  
He has never been in a situation like this, which is why she also can’t have seen him in it before, but she knows him.

o

He knows he should feel happy, but he isn’t. He feels amazing as he’s in the room with his parents. When he’s out again, he still doesn’t feel like eating or anything but being alone with Jade, being in her arms, safe and secure.  
He’s still scared for his parents though he has now even talked to both of them. His nerves are thin and he realizes that it irritates him very much that everyone wants to talk to him about the situation. Except for Jade. But his friends and his grandmothers, his teachers and classmates... And he even got a few texts the night before from some cousins, asking how everything is. As if he had the nerve to text them, while he still feel strange in his own body.  
His grandmothers are argueably the worst though. He’s glad he’s not alone with them again at the moment, that Jade’s with him at all times. Though his grandmothers meanwhile don’t like that and this Thursday morning, when Jade dragged him inside again for breakfast, they mention that the first time after that first moment of seeing Jade after the accident.  
“Oh, Jade. We want to thank you for being with Beck,” his mams says; it’s not a real thanks at all.  
Beck looks up darkly, as his mams continues: “But you don’t have to put your whole life on hold. You don’t need to come to the hospital again this afternoon.”  
“She will,” Beck states. He knows his mams wants to tell Jade in a roundabout way that she and his grandma don’t want her around.  
His mams only shortly glances at him, then at his grandma, before she looks back to Jade: “Your mother must want to know where you are.”  
Seriously? Now they’re assuming, just like his mother always does, that Jade doesn’t tell her mother anything, that she just leaves her place without her mother knowing. As if she would stay away for several nights without telling her.  
Beck can’t believe it, but before he can say anything, Jade answers: “She knows.”  
His grandmothers exchange another glance and now, his grandma opens her mouth. But he isn’t having any of it and harshly cuts through: “Don’t try to find an excuse to send her away. I don’t care if you leave or not, but Jade will stay with me!”  
His mams raises her eyebrows: “You don’t care if we leave or not?”  
He knows he should backtrack, he shouldn’t say how he truly feels because that will only hurt them. But what does he care? His parents are in the hospital, almost died. Why should he have to be considerate of other people right now? Why should he be careful with his words while his grandmothers want to take from him what he needs most: Jade?  
He glares up to both of them and is about to actually insult him, when Jade speaks up again: “He doesn’t mean that.”  
He does, but somehow, it doesn’t annoy him that Jade claims he doesn’t. Because he knows Jade’s doing what’s best for him. She’s protecting him.  
His grandma promptly scolds her: “Why do you think you can talk for him?”  
Beck clenches his teeth.  
But it’s Jade once more, who talks before he can, also sort of harshly though: “Because I’m his girlfriend and know what he’s feeling at the moment. Which also means that I’ll stay with him whether you like it or not.”  
She has stood up while talking and now turns to Beck: “Now take the rest of that food, Beck, and let’s get going to school.”  
He has lost his appitite, but he quickly does take his plate, while Jade already leaves the room. He follows her out of the house, before his grandmothers can stop him, and gets into his car, him on the passanger’s seat like always since the accident.  
Jade leans back into the driver’s seat, not starting the car right away. She closes her eyes and Beck’s sure she forces herself to calm down.  
Well, now she’s also the one pulling the anger of his a to herself instead of letting Beck take the heat. She’s the one they hate even more now. Just because he feels so miserable and isn’t able to behave like his old self.  
He has put the plate with the rest of his food in his lap and now leans over to her, gently kissing her. She kisses him back, slowly.  
On the way to school, they share the rest of his food. After all, she has also been stopped by his grandmothers from finishing her breakfast. So this time, it’s his turn to make her eat.

 

Beck starts to really let his bad mood flow, but with everything that’s happening with his parents, with the car accident having happened bare days ago, Jade thinks his behaviour is more than fair.  
After school, Jade drives them to the hospital once more and Beck asks her again to come into the room with her. Which means another long afternoon of watching the (rightfully) happy family while she has nothing to do. Well, maybe nobody will care if she’s on her phone. The day before she wasn’t sure if she should be on her phone, if she was allowed to be in the hospital. But they aren’t in intensive care anymore and her playing on her phone shouldn’t matter to anyone. She will still be there and available to Beck.  
Beck’s grandmothers are grabbing something to eat for themselves as Beck and Jade come into the room. They apparently have been in the room since breakfast, barely leaving their children’s sides.  
Jade keeps close to the door, doesn’t want to directly sit down and pull her phone out, while Beck hugs his mother first, then his father. And then, Beck also starts talking to his father first and instead of trying to listen in on their conversation, trying to be part of it, his mother suddenly turns to Jade, after having ignored her completely the day before. Jade wasn’t even sure, his parents realized she was there too. She imagined them not being totally attentive yet after the accident.  
Now, his mother whispers, as if making sure, Beck won’t notice and listen to them: “Jade, come closer.”  
Jade doesn’t feel like having another arguement with his family, but she takes a deep breath and walks up to his mother’s bed. Beck’s turned with his back to them at the moment while he’s laughing at something his father said.  
His mother shortly glances to them, then looks back to Jade who stands next to the bed, she’s sitting in. “My mother told me how you made Beck go to school, two days after the accident. And how you never left his side, though she and my mother-in-law would’ve liked some time alone with him.” And she doesn’t appreciate any of that and wants Jade to leave now.  
Jade glances to Beck, hoping he won’t notice, because then he’ll get angry at his mother and they don’t need that at the moment.  
But instead of sending her away, Beck’s mother tells her something Jade never would’ve expected, softly: “Thank you for taking care of him.”  
Jade swallows hard.  
His mother understands. His mother also knows Beck so well and, especially after seeing him the day before, pale and shaking, holding on to her tight, she must understand somehow that Beck needed someone to tell him what to do, where to go. Someone who stayed with him, took him to school and never left his side. She understands that Beck needed Jade, though she never liked her and never deemed her good enough for her little boy.  
Even more quiet, Beck’s mother says: “Please, stay with him.” Despite what his grandmothers might say, while his parents are still in the hospital. Despite Beck’s behaviour that most certainly will still worsen because he’s scared and there are so many pent-up emotions inside of him after the emptiness and numbness right after the accident.  
Jade looks Beck’s mother straight in the eye as she nods, a silent promise, that makes his mother smile lightly, after she never smiled at Jade before.  
Then, Beck’s voice cuts through: “Everything alright?”  
He has finally turned around and noticed them talking. Jade notices how tense he is. He’s ready to protect Jade, even now.  
But she nods again, also looking into his eye, showing him that everything’s fine, that his mother hasn’t said anything bad to her, quite the opposite, before she says: “I’ll go sit down.”  
Beck gets to talk to his parents alone for more than half an hour, sitting between them. Then, his grandmothers are back and pull some of the attention back to themselves. It’s his father who then, as the talk is more all over the place anyway, tries to get Jade involved a little bit every now and then, who asks her about the school the same he does Beck. Jade sees that as a sign that he understands just as much that his son needs her there, even if his mother also doesn’t.

o

It’s Friday and Beck himself manages to tell his friends that his parents are mostly fine. The doctors even expect them to come home soon, though they’ll need to be under a physician’s care for a much longer time.  
Beck still isn’t... even close to his usual self. He’s somehow even more short-tempered than before. He only tells about his parents after Jade looks at him expectantly, silently ordering him to talk about his parents’ condition in front of his friends.  
Now, they’re all sitting at lunch again and out of nowhere, Sinjin appears, like he often does, creeping up beside Jade: “Hi, Jade. I wondered when you will upload a new video to The Slap. I need to get some new material.”  
Sometimes, he even makes Tori sick. She understands Jade’s glare for him – the thing is that Beck’s glare is even worse, though he barely ever says anything to Sinjin (Tori’s also sure that Jade wouldn’t appreciate him acting like he needs to put Sinjin in his place, as if she couldn’t do that herself, as if she’s his damsel in distress).  
Now, he very darkly and directly says, in a voice that Tori can’t help to believe: “Don’t ever talk to Jade again. If you do, I’ll kill you.”  
Okay, whoa.  
Sinjin has also no trouble believing that threat and runs away, while all of the friends exchange glances, putting their food down, staring at Beck.  
He doesn’t seem to care, turns back to his own food as he says with utter disgust: “What a little shit.”  
Tori can’t stand it anymore and has to speak up, carefully: “Beck. I know you’re having a rough time and Sinjin’s a total creep but... you can’t keep treating everyone worse and worse.” Because that’s not him. That’s not their friend Beck.  
Tori has never been too scared by one of Jade’s glares, unlike Robbie or Andre. She is scared now, when Beck slowly and darkly looks up.  
Tori barely notices Jade keeping her eyes steady on Beck, not impressed or surprised, while Cat, Robbie and Andre all look at least as unsure as Tori feels.  
“Can’t? Right,” Beck spits out, viciously, his voice rising: “And a rough time? Really? Fuck you! My parents are in the hospital, dying, and you scold me for being a little impolite. Because perfect little Tori...”  
He abruptly stops as Jade lies her hand on his arm.  
Tori feels more than hurt. It’s Robbie, who softly asks: “They aren’t dying, are they?” That’s exactly how Tori understood it. They aren’t dying. They will be fine.  
Beck huffs. “Yeah, that’s great! Wow. And because their lives aren’t in immediate danger anymore, you don’t worry at all.” He means all of them with that. “Because you don’t care what happens to my family. You guys only care about your own petty lives...”  
He isn’t done at all, instead seems to get into a rant. An insulting rant about and to his friends. But Jade cuts through, not sounding anxious in any way, rather relaxed instead: “Beck. As much as I’m enjoying this conversation, you should leave.”  
He looks to her, clenching his teeth. He doesn’t rise, doesn’t follow her suggestion.  
She says, strict now: “Leave, before you say something to them, they won’t be able to forgive you. Up, now!”  
She also starts grabbing her things and Tori has the impression that that’s the only reason he finally gets up and starts to leave: not because of her words but because she shows him that she will come with him.  
He’s still the first to go. She hangs back a little and turns to their friends one more time, talking much harsher to them than to Beck: “And you guys, fuck off. You can’t downplay what’s happening, just because everything’s perfectly fine for you. If you can’t handle his mood at the moment, leave him alone.”  
Then she’s gone.  
For a long moment, it’s silent on their table. And with every passing second, Tori feels worse.  
Okay, she totally thinks that Beck doesn’t have a free pass to be an asshole and by god, he acts like one at the moment, but he isn’t usually like this and the accident was just a few days ago, he was in that car and almost lost his parents and... she guesses, she should let it slide for now. After Beck is otherwise always so patient and good to them... They should be patient with him now. She should be.  
“That’s not what I wanted,” Tori finally tells the others. “I’m so sorry. I...”  
She doesn’t know what to say, but Andre promptly assures her that he also thought about telling Beck off with Robbie and Cat nodding. Neither of them has liked Beck’s behaviour lately. But for the first time, they are talking about it and they agree that this must be how Beck is coping. And as their friends, they should handle that. If he doesn’t keep being an asshole, they can stand it through these days.  
It’s Cat who says they should all go apologize to him, as they’ve all been annoyed by him and have shown it. Tori’s glad that Robbie and Andre agree and she therefore isn’t the only one going to apologize to him, especially as she could imagine him not accepting the apology in the mood that he’s currently in. She doesn’t know if she could face that alone.  
Now, they decide to give Beck some time to cool off. As they are sure he will be at the hospital for the afternoon and evening again and most of tomorrow, which is a Saturday, they decide to go visit him the next evening.

o

They drive there together and Tori’s the one, carefully knocking on the door. Andre calls out: “Beck? It’s us.”  
Tori’s sure to hear someone talk inside, then the door opens and Jade stands on the other side.  
“What?” she asks, cocking an eyebrows at them and Tori has the feeling that they’ll have to convince Jade that they don’t want to hurt Beck in any way. She has the feeling that she’ll protect him and only let them talk to him if she’s sure they won’t aggrevate him again.  
That’s why Tori makes sure to look her directly in her eye as she says: “We want to apologize to him.”  
Jade returns the look, then rolls her eyes as she steps aside to let them in. They all file into the RV to find the TV running and Beck sitting on the couch, not looking too comfortable, more as if he sat up when Jade got up. Maybe, they were cuddling before.  
“Hey,” Tori says tentatively, Robbie and Andre doing the same, while Cat says a drawn-out: “Hi.”  
Beck looks at them expressionless, while Jade has closed the door behind them, has passed by them and now stands by the side (as much as she can in the small RV) with crossed arms, watching the scene unfold.  
“Sorry about what happened yesterday,” Tori says. “I shouldn’t have said what I said.” Not in that way. Not in that moment.  
Beck only shrugs and doesn’t say anything. Well, is that it?  
Tori exchanges a glance with Andre, unsure.  
It’s Jade who breaks the upcoming awkward silence: “You guys have time this evening?”  
“Yeah,” Andre says and Cat asks: “What for?”  
Jade starts getting her things together, her handbag, her phone, some keys, money, while she answers: “Let’s go to Karaoke Dokie.”  
That’s a twist.  
“Seriously?” Beck spits out.  
Jade rolls her eyes, still gathering her things. “I’m in the mood for some karaoke.”  
“Now?” Beck questions. He obviously doesn’t like the idea.  
“Yes,” Jade says and finally looks at him again. “Come on. Get up.” So, she wants him to come with them. She turns to Robbie, Andre, Cat and Tori: “You on board?”  
“Yes!” Cat immediately says and Robbie also nods: “Sure.”  
Andre and Tori exchange another glance, wondering if this is really what they should do, with Beck, but... why not? It’s his decision if he wants to come with them.  
Beck looks a little blank and Jade once more turns to him, looking him straight in the eye: “We’ll go there. I need to go out after a day at the hospital.” Does that mean she has actually been at the hospital with him, visiting his parents? “You’re gonna come with.”  
Beck clenches his teeth again, but then he says: “Fine.”  
Beck and Jade drive alone in Beck’s car, but they spend the evening together, all six of them, at Karaoke Dokie. Beck doesn’t get up to sing but he barely ever does in these settings. Jade goes up with Cat for one song and otherwise stays close to Beck. Beck, who’s a little like himself this evening.

o

Jade finds him getting back to normal. There are still snide remarks he wouldn’t do in the open otherwise, or him loosing his patience, but it’s getting better every day. His friends also deal better with it from then on, don’t grow awkwardly silent but just act like he never said anything, whenever it’s happening. Which, for them, is the better approach because they otherwise always seem to say the wrong thing to him. And awkward silence definitely is also worse for him. Which is why she only “forced” them to spend time with him for lunch – she thought they could handle that. Instead, they also searched him out in school next to that and then got annoyed by him. Awesome.  
Now, they still search him out but are behaving better around him.  
She takes him to more and more places again, when they aren’t with his parents, often eating dinner with him at their favorite places, after being at the hospital. She also often invites their friends along, as they finally understand how to be around Beck. And as he’s finally ready for more contact, even needs it.  
For the first few days, like that first evening to Karaoke Dokie, she needs to guilt him into going anywhere. Telling him she needs it because she’s bored or she has been at the hospital too much, though she couldn’t care less. It works. He can handle a little guilt at this point (could handle it from the beginning with the food) and would do everything for her, so he comes with her and ends up having a somewhat good time.

Both his parents get out of the hospital at the end of the next week, not even two weeks after the terrible accident that could’ve killed them. They are still on strict bedrest but are getting taken care off by all their parents for the weekend. Their fathers fly in for the weekend and after it, Beck’s parents make all their parents leave, telling them, they’ve done enough for them.  
Beck helps out as much as he can and suddenly, that Monday, now more than two weeks from the accident, he’s without Jade for the first time since the last few days (except for the classes he had without her). She’s dropping him off at his home, still using his car at all times, and then drives to her own home for the afternoon and evening to see her mother and her brother again, promising she’ll be back for the night. Somehow, it’s okay. He’s glad she’s back for the night but he has a good time with his parents. Maybe, at this time, he would even be calm and collected again around his grandmothers, as much as they annoyed him right after the accident.

That Tuesday, he apologizes to his friends for his behaviour, when they’re eating lunch at school.  
They all shake their heads. Yes, they were annoyed by his behaviour, but him and Jade calling them out on it woke them up and they dealt with it.  
Somehow, as Tori sees how Beck has his arm Jade, somewhat sure of himself again, not desperately holding on to her hand, but still holding her close... Seeing them like that, Tori’s sure that he hasn’t apologized to Jade and also won’t and that she also don’t need or want him to apologize. He won’t because he feels so comfortable around her and knows that she can handle even his worst moods, even his worst moments. He will make it up to her, Tori’s sure, but he doesn’t need any words for that.  
Meanwhile, he feels like he needs to apologize to his friends because everything else would hurt their friendship. It can’t hurt Jade’s and his relationship. They can get through stuff like this, Beck can even be sort of an ass without it hurting their relationship. Just like they were always able to bicker, to fight and to insult each other without serious injuries. Because they know each other so well that they understand what the other one means with what they say, and which limit never to cross with their own words.

 

That night, Jade sleeps over at Beck’s again. She still will for a while. They will try sleeping apart a week later but Beck will get haunted of memories of that accident, which he doesn’t even have. He doesn’t sleep that night and after that, she decides to stay with him for a little longer.  
But she’s already not the one, necessarily holding him, like she has the first few nights after the accident. He still needs her close, but she also loves being close to him.  
Now, she’s lying in his arms, her head on top of his chest. They have turned the light out but Beck can’t sleep yet.  
He has again spent the afternoon in the house with his parents and wondered for the first time if the accident really was only three weeks ago after it often felt like it just happened since it did. It starts to become a distant memory, even though his parents are still recovering (and so is he – he isn’t sure when he’ll feel like he’s able to drive a car himself; for now he’s glad to have Jade drive him around).  
And somehow: “I feel like I can finally breathe again.” Like he’s out of the water and like he’s finally back in his own body.  
“Good,” Jade only answers, doesn’t question that sudden statement.  
But she does raise her head from his chest, looking down to him. In her eyes seems to be relief. Relief that he feels that way.  
She’s amazing. She has been amazing all through this ordeal. He doesn’t know if he would’ve survived it otherwise. Maybe, he would still lie in this bed, never having gotten up after the night of the accident, never answering anyone’s calls or knocks. Having starved to death without noticing.  
But she stayed with him, kept him going, made him get up in the morning, made him eat and drink, kept him in check.  
He’s about to thank her for absolutely everything, when she kisses him softly. She knows what he wants to say, he realizes, and she doesn’t think a spoken thanks is necessary. She never has been into saying thanks or sorry. She always told him that you should act on those words, instead of saying them, that the other person will know you are thankful or sorry if you really are, that those words are too often used emptily to believe them anymore.  
Instead of a thanks, she wants to hear something else. “Say you love me,” she whispers against his lips, after breaking apart from him again.  
“You know I love you,” he says. How couldn’t he?  
And he also knows she loves him. She loves him and protects him. And in times of trouble, that’s the thing making him feel safe.


End file.
